WordPress plugins are great tools for getting the best out of your blog, and so many of them are free as well. Take a look at this list to see which ones you could be benefiting from.

Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps is a handy SEO plugin which helps the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. to better index your site with a special XML sitemap and also notifies all the major search engines every time you publish something on your site.

WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize cleans up your WordPress database and optimises it for you. It automatically removes unnecessary data such as spammy and un-approved comments, trash posts, and comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks etc. and then keeps your database clean and optimised for the best performance.

Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights

Google Analytics is a statistical tool which will help you to understand website traffic and your audience. Once you know your audience, you can cater to them and improve your user traffic. It allows you to monitor various real-time stats regarding your website as well as track user views from multiple platforms and devices and receive various demographic and interest reports.

All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets

Rich snippets is a great way to beautify the appearance of your page on search engine result pages. The snippets provide the primary information about your site and highlight the attractions of it which means you can get more click-through rates through search engines.

BJ Lazy Load

If you use a lot of images on your site, it can take ages to load which can also be off-putting to users and result in higher bounce rates. BJ Lazy Load replaces all your post images, post thumbnails, gravatar images and content iframes with a placeholder and loads the content as it gets close to entering the browser screen. It displays the photos only when the user scrolls the page meaning your site loads faster and saves bandwidth.

Broken Link Checker

How annoying are broken links? Annoying for your users too, so this handy plugin monitors your website for all the broken links automatically. It checks all your posts, comments and other content for broken links and instantly notifies you if any are found. Then it reports on the missing images as well so that you can fix them quickly.

Social Icons

This one provides you with an easy way to display your favourite social icons on your website and supports over 100 popular social media platforms. It is simple and easy to use. You can instantly install the plugin and add social media icons in beautiful layouts.

The plugin also offers further customisation options for the icons; you can resize them, change their shape and change their background.

These are a good starting point, and there are so many others which are freemium meaning that the base product is free, but then there are other options which you’ll need to pay for. However, if you need some advice and do want to spend some money, then it’s worth speaking to a Woocommerce agency who can help you get the best out of your blog.